survey

Over the summer, Audit Scotland ran a survey to try to capture the views of parents and carers about their experiences of early learning and childcare in Scotland. This was a key part of our preparations for a new audit of these services, to give an independent assessment of how the system is working and what outcomes are being delivered for people who access this support.

It was the first time that Audit Scotland had directly reached out families who use these services, so we weren’t sure what kind of response to expect. We were really pleased with the result, as dozens of individuals and organisations helped to spread the word about the survey and over 300 people completed the questionnaire.

We learned a lot from the engagement, and collected some really useful material, including individual stories. Our early analysis of the responses shows a range of recurring views, including the positive impact that early learning and childcare can have on a child’s development and wellbeing.

However, concerns were raised on issues such as the cost of services, a lack of choice, and limited flexibility, particularly for working or studying parents.

It’s important to highlight that reform of early learning and childcare is continuing: in her September announcement on the 2016/17 Programme for Government, the First Minister set out a commitment to double the amount of free care available to all three and four-year-olds, and two-year-olds who will benefit most, by the end of the Scottish Parliament’s fifth session.

This means that our audit will be a timely and relevant contribution to the future development of early learning and childcare services. The views contributed by parents and carers have helped us to lay the groundwork for our audit and shape what questions we want to answer. There are a number of insights that we’ll investigate further and test out during the course of our fieldwork. We’ve set out more detail about our work – which we’ll carry out on behalf of the Auditor General and the Accounts Commission – in a new flyer.

One thing that’s certain is that we want to continue engaging with parents and carers, and we’re looking forward to building on the great response we’ve had so far.

We’ll continue to post updates about when we’ll publish our audit report as our work develops in the coming year – watch this space for news.

About the author

Rebecca Smallwood is an auditor and joined Audit Scotland in 2008. She has worked on a number of audits with a health and social care focus, including community health partnerships, emergency departments and reshaping care for older people.

Audit Scotland looks at public spending and policy across the whole of the public sector, meaning there’s a huge number of areas we can potentially explore.

Right now we’re considering an audit on Early Learning and Childcare (ELCC) in Scotland. These services have recently been changed and face further reform in the future, so this feels like the right time to take a closer look at how the system is working, and what outcomes are being delivered for the people who access this support.

We haven’t explored these services in detail before, and we want to make sure we’re on the right track when we start planning our audit work. So, we’re looking for parents and carers of children eligible for funded early learning and childcare services (usually three to four-year-olds, and some two-year-olds) to share their views and experiences with us, in a brief new survey.

We’re particularly interested in exploring how public money is spent on ELCC, and what the impact has been on children, and their parents and carers, from the recent changes to the system.

These changes include:

An increase in the number of funded hours available for three and four year olds from 475 to 600 hours a year;

Provision of funded places for some two year olds;

An increase in the flexibility of the services, such as offering places with different hours or in different settings, dependent on local need

These are the areas we’re primarily interested in, but we also want parents and carers to let us know if there are other aspects of ELCC they think we should look at when we begin our work.

By telling us about their experiences and what areas they think we should be focusing on, they can play an important role in helping to make sure public money is spent properly, and creates positive outcomes for the people who rely on vital services like ELCC.

So if you’re a parent or carer of an eligible child (or children!), please spare a few minutes to help us build a picture of what’s happening across the country, what’s important to you and your family, and the kinds of issues we should cover in our work.

We’ll run the survey until the end of August and post further updates here and on our website as our audit starts to take shape. Why not sign up to our newsletter when you complete the survey, so we can send updates straight to your inbox?

About the author

Rebecca Smallwood is an auditor and joined Audit Scotland in 2008. She has worked on a number of audits with a health and social care focus, including community health partnerships, emergency departments and reshaping care for older people.